Battlefront Open Day, FoW Discussion

Hi folks,

My 400th post I think!

I've just finished watching the live stream of the Flames of War/TY discussion from Saturday's Battlefront Open day, and thought it might be worth putting down some of what was discussed.

FoW (Mid War):

- Next two books, due August 25th 2018 are for the Eastern Front, 'Iron Cross' and 'Enemy at the Gates'
- These cover the Stalingrad battles
- 36 Plastic kits in the range, plastic Nebelwerfers were specifically mentioned, almost entire Russian range is in plastic
- Panzergrenadiers are included, but will not have half tracks in the book, there will be a web article to use half tracks, but a proper half track mounted army list will not be available until the 3rd Eastern Front book (Kursk).
- They are working on a plastic German Half track 251/1C model
- Plastic kits will include as many variants as possible, for example the KV-1 kit includes options for Flame tank and 85mm version
- Eastern Front being split into various books, with the Kursk book being after the first two
- Romanians and Hungarians being available as digital lists along with 'hopefully others', no dates given.
- Command Cards for Russians include blocking detachment (can shoot up a friendly unit, giving a bonus to motivation depending on number of hits, forcing pinned units forward), NKVD, Militgia, Naval Infantry, Cossacks, Unstoppable (KV-1's can still shoot when bailed) and Unkillable (KV-1's force re-rolls of German last stand tests within a radius).
- Commissars, if present, make units use better stats, if absent the unit reverts to worse stats.

Specifics mentioned for Russian Infantry:

- Hit on a 3+ (rather than a 2+)
- Save on a 4+ (rather than a 3+)
- 6" charge range (rather than 4")
- Assault on a 4+
- options for smaller, better, infantry units with worse motivation

Work also done on how Russian tank formations work, no real specifics given.

Scenery:

- Plastic unpainted 'city ruins' which are modular and can be combined into large structures, detailed inside and out, includes roof bits, can be made into various shapes
- resin painted factories and red brick house chimney stacks
- Gaming mat, one side city fighting and one side Kursk terrain

Great War:

- Getting the 'Osprey treatement'
- New book coming early 2019
- Will include Belgians, Cavalry, Armoured Cars, more options for Brits and Germans and 'a few other bits and pieces'

Osprey:

- Using Osprey to stop 'other periods' from going defunct
- Mentioned Vietnam, Arab Israeli and Great War specifically
- Later mentioned that FoW 'Early' WW2 may be done by Osprey for retail reasons (not a period widely supported or played and not something retailers are generally willing to stock as it does not sell).
- also mentioned 'possibly other in the future' but this may have been a reference to the 'early' WW2 stuff.

Oil Wars:

- Covering the wars in the middle east during the 80's, including the Iran Iraq war
- mentioned plastic Israeli Merkavas
- Interesting period as many nations had a mix of American, Soviet and UK equipment.
- My impression was that these books were covering the Middle East generally but that they would fit in with Team Yankee. While the more modern equipment was talked about at the same time, I don't think it will necessarily be included in this book.

Team Yankee: 

- New version due out in October 2019 fully bringing TY in line with V4
- When the next army books are done for the Brits, Yanks and Soviets the 'next generation' equipment will be included, including M1A1's, Bradlys, Apaches, T-80's, BMP3's, Challengers and Warriors. MRL's were also mentioned.
- Czech and Pole books due out October 18, two separate 24 page books due to the inclusion of unit cards for each force. Will include T-62's, RM70's, OT64's and Dana's.
- These two books will also give options for Soviet use of the T-62's, from what I understood.
- T-80 with reactive armour due to go into design 'soon'
- Future Soviet book would unfortunately replace 'Red Thunder' and become a compilation of sorts, but would include more 'modern' kit such as the T-80
- New British book also due out October 19
- Discussion being had in studio regarding 'infantry and towed weapons' such as mortars and artillery, and options for inclusion. These were left out initially in order to get armies out quickly.

Late War:

- The Breakthrough Assault lads reported that the v4 '100pt' books for late war will be out on the 6 June 2019
- First late war 100pt book due out if Normandy
- The BA guys reported that the plan is to produce 2 to 3 campaign books per year and that the late war stuff will be pointed or referenced against a tiered system to represent 'early late', 'mid late' and 'late late' to help balance the late war period out.
- Initial book (before Normandy release) will be for a German Para book covering mid and late war. This book will have '100pt' lists for mid and late war, and cards for 1500pt late war... meaning that it is compatible with mid war, 100pt late war and 1500pt late war lists. An American Para book was also mentioned, but I wasn't clear as to timing of this - it may be the same time as the German book?
- British para book will apparently be later, after Normandy
- New 'Open Fire' style box will come out with v4 Late War (June 2019?)


Other:

- Brief mention of a 'modern' tanks game, using the TY models
- Talk about BF's regret over the launch of v4. No issues with the rules - BF are happy with the way the game plays and maintain that a change was needed as v3 had grown into a monster, but big lessons learnt about the release method, the initial contents of the release (lack of army options), communications, etc. Insisted that lessons had been learnt.
- The feed quality, via Facebook live, was pretty poor, so no images of the slides, although there are some around Facebook and I'm sure other sites will publish stuff in due course.

That's all I've picked up from the live feed and from a quick check on Facebook for what else is being reported.

Battlefront September Releases

Hi folks,

Just doing a quick post to show off some of the stuff coming for Flames of War in September. This is all collated from per-order's in stores and info gathered from WWPD's recent podcast and Breakthrough Assaults coverage.

First up, the Bulge Companion:

Not really my cup of tea, apart from the inclusion of a certain British army list:

Pic care of Breakthrough Assault's Facebook page

As the image isn't too clear, the British lists are:

7th Armoured Division (not involved in the Bulge fight, but due an upgrade from Overlord) - Armoured Squadron, Motor Company, Rifle Company.
29th Armoured Brigade (those damn Guards again - the most overrated British unit gets another list) - Armoured Squadron and Motor Company
53rd Welsh Infantry Division - Rifle Company
51st Highland Division - Rifle Company (likely the same one as above)
6th Airborne Division (?) - Parachute Company and Airlanding Company

US lists include:

4th Armoured - Tank Company, Armoured Rifle Company
7th Armoured - Tank Company, Armoured Rifle Company
704th Tank Destroyer Battalion - Tank Destroyer Company
761st Tanks Battalion - Black Panthers - Light Tank Company and Tank Company
29th Infantry Division - later late war version - Rifle Company
28th Infantry Division - Rifle Company
99th Infantry Battalion - Rifle Company
291st Engineer Combat Battalion - Engineer Combat Company
14th Cavalry Group - Cavalry Recon and Cav Tank Company
101st Airborne Division ('guys from nuts')
2nd Ranger Battalion in Hurtgen Forest

German Lists include:

106. Panzerbrigade Feldhernhalle - FHH Panzer Co, FHH Panzersturm Co, FHH PanzerGren Co
111. Panzerbrigade Panzercompanie
111. Panzerbrigade Panzergrenadierkompanie
SS-Kampfgruppe Peiper
SS-Kampfgruppe Hansen - Motor PanzerGren Co
SS-Schnellgruppe Knittel - Recon lists (A/C's and Infantry)
150. Panzerbrigade Kampfgruppe
Fuhrerbegleit and Fuhrengrenadier brigade -
Volksgrenadier Divisions
5. Fallschimjagerdivision
Nordwind Panzergrenadierkompanie
Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie
Gebirgsjagerkompanie

WWPD had a great interview with a BF staff member who talked about what types of lists were included. He also mentioned that the two plastic kits coming out for the Bulge Compilation were German Puma's (making 4 different versions - as described on the podcast as making the Puma, 234/1, 234/3 and 234/4 ) and American M10's (M10's, M10C's, Jacksons).

Also coming in September are a series of limited edition boxed sets - one for each main nation.

German set priced at around £65.

British set priced around £60

Russian set prices at £60.

US set priced at £70.

Sorry for the image quality, these were pinched from retailers who have them up for pre-orders.

Hope this is useful - thanks to the guys at WWPD and Breakthrough Assault for the interviews and images (hope no one minds me collating stuff here).

Edit: The WWPD site has been updated with more info on the Bulge Compilation - including some better list descriptions and images from the books. Link is here.

Team Yankee: The British are Coming!

Hi folks,

No pictures I've afraid, although I have seen some images of the British MBT via the Beasts of War site. Combined with some of the other comments and interviews I've caught, I thought it might be worth a quick article on what's been revealed so far:

- The British MBT shown on the Beasts of War backstage video is a Chieftain. The plastic sprue shown seemed to have two turret options, one of which appeared to have the Stillbrew turret armour.

- There was a comment made that the RAF would not just be getting 'the Tornado with RAF roundels on it'. Which probably means the Harrier or Jaguar (or possibly the Phantom???). Given the Harrier is the more iconic, it's probably that (incidentally, my least favorite period aircraft).

And some suppositions by myself based on what's been seen so far. 

- The only real option for the Brit helicopters for the period is the Lynx... although given that the Team Yankee Brits seem to be circa 1970 rather than 1985, that might be up in the air!

 - Scorpion and Scimitar Recce vehicles are a possibility. Although again, with the Brits seeming to be getting older kit it could be Fox A/C's.

- I would expect to see the 432 family as the APC's. Hopefully not the older wheeled vehicles.

- Possibly the Abbot rather than the American SP arty that the US and Germans have.

Team Yankee was written to be parallel with "The Third World War" by Gen Sir John Hackett- which was written in 1979 about a conflict in 1985. I've not read this book myself (yet), but I suspect that Battlefront might be basing the British ToE on the contents of that book rather than on what was actually available.

The other comment worth noting was that the Brits are due out 'before the holidays' and that there are currently no plans for what nation to do next.